Passive income? Not as Passive as I hoped!

Why online marketing and business might just take longer than I thought!!

So I need more money.

Who doesn't? And who isn't looking for other ways to get a few more pounds in their pockets? I work full time but am always coming up short at the end of the month, which for a guy with a wife and 2 children isn't ideal.

I've played around with business before, a small premium text business netted a few hundred pounds and a few stocks here and there went down as well as up but I've never really nailed my hat on anything solid that I fancy doing to earn more. So when I stumbled upon a guy called Pat Flynn and his Smart Passive Income Blog I was a little sceptical but intrigued. Here was a guy who, after getting laid off his job as an architect, decided not to go looking for his next job, but to jump into internet businesses full time! And I mean full time, getting into his podcast reveals many many websites and many fingers in many pies, all dripping cash into his account. In fact, the reason I am writing this article on InfoBarrel is because of one of his podcasts! He seems to be a guy a bit like me, if he doesn't know how to do something he learns it! There's a wealth of 'How to' videos on YouTube on just about anything so there really is no excuse not to learn new skills nowadays.

I was hooked, I listened to all 45 or so podcasts whilst at work, in the gym, doing the washing up etc. It all seemed to make sense to me, find a subject you like, design a website, do some articles, set up Google Adsense and wait for the money to roll in!! Brilliant!!

Aaah but here's the rub. Pat is in the States, population 311,000,000, i'm in the UK, population 62,000,000. That's kind of a big difference for starters. then there's the UK's tolerance and suspicion of AdSense. People in the States may well be quite happy to click a link and get an affiliate commission for the site, over here in the UK we are a more suspicious bunch and the thought of someone benefitting from us perturbs us slightly! So there's 2 issues right away.

Then there's building a website..............er can't quite do that!! Never fear, Pat's suggestion, learn Wordpress!! So off I went watching all the YouTube video's and getting signed up and ready to go!

3 days later the germ of a site had been built, www.ticketmonkee.co.uk, an event ticket selling site for clubs and bars in Manchester. Not bad I think to myself, might be a gooer this one!

Then I hit a wall, Wordpress is in essence a blogging site and as much as they try, it has it's limitations. Sitting in my office banging my head against a wall whilst trying to find a simple e-commerce plug-in a voice is heard, 'Why are you using Wordpress? Joomla is the way to go!'

Ten minutes later and I've been turned, 15 minutes later and I'm starting on the Joomla tutorials!!

Now I'm not known for my patience, my motto is 'Do it now!' and I hate being behind the game so for now I'm pushing forwards. I've already got three venues willing to let me sell tickets and plenty more to speak to but my point is this, it is not passive.

Is there really such a thing as passive income?

In his defence, Pat never claims there is such a thing, in fact the strapline to all his online podcasts is 'Work hard now to reap the benefits later'. A lot of what he does is hard work up front, monetise and automate then sit back and do upkeep. Great once you get the process right but very tricky to start!

Maybe its a UK/USA thing again but affiliate marketing just doesn't have the same appeal over here, if someone wants to buy an Apple they go to Apple, not to a review site which says how good they are and then asks you to click through their link! People don't like the 'middle man', that suspicion creeps in again I think.

On TV in the UK there are maybe 2 review programmes that do well, Top Gear for cars and The Gadget Show for, well, gadgets. And even these are not straight forward review shows, Top Gear wraps reviews up in races and challenges, as does The Gadget Show, again a nod towards the UK's innate suspicion of being sold something. Perhaps this is a business model idea that needs looking at further, www.notareviewsite.co.uk anyone?

So I'm continuing in my quest for extra income, the ticket site is coming along nicely and the ideas for 3-4 other websites are fermenting in my mind just waiting to be unleashed. I will implement a lot of what Pat Flynn talks about but think I need to put a British slant on a lot of things, for one its pronounced neesh, not NITCH guys!!

Many thanks to Pat Flynn at Smart Passive Income for igniting something in my head and putting me onto a lot of cool stuff online, hopefully I can emulate in a small way what he has managed to do, who knows it may be my income shown monthly on my own site soon!!